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Ando Masahashi is Hiro Nakamura's best friend and co-worker. Initially leading a bored, monotonous life in Tokyo, Japan, Ando and Hiro finally fulfilled their dreams of adventure when Hiro's ability manifested. While Hiro journeys on his quests to save the world from certain destruction; Ando remains at his side, his stalwart companion and sidekick. Initially without abilities, he synthetically gained the ability of supercharging, in order to rescue Hiro who was trapped in the past. Ando had been in love with Kimiko Nakamura for years but she did not share his feelings. However, due to a change in the timeline, Ando and Kimiko are now happily in love and engaged to be married.

Character History

Ando is working when Hiro comes running declaring he has a power. Ando is doesn't believe him and goes back to watching Niki on webcam. After work him and Hiro go to a bar where Ando suggests Hiro should use his ability to get into the woman's restroom. Even when Hiro does it, Ando doesn't believe. When Hiro arrives in the future, it is Ando he calls for help, who explains Hiro has been gone for several weeks.

When Hiro returns he convinces Ando to follow him to to New York City by showing him a copy of 9th Wonders! that accurately portrays the conversation he and Hiro are having. The two fly to Los Angeles and then drive to Las Vegas. In Vegas, Ando convinces Hiro to cheat at gambling. When they anger the wrong people the two are beaten up and dumped off at a diner. Ando blames Hiro for their troubles and leaves him and goes to Niki Sanders's house. When she tells him to leave, he returns to Hiro to continue their journey. They attempt to call Isaac, but get Peter and Ando helps translate Peter's message for Hiro. On their way to leave, they are confronted by the high roller they cheated who enlists them in helping him cheat. During the game, a woman comes and kills the other players as Hiro and Ando escape.

As they leave Las Vegas, they see a car accident. After Hiro saves the woman and the man Ando chats with the man's kid. Continuing on to New York, they stop at a diner in Midland, TX and meet a waitress who is then killed. Hiro goes back in time to save her, leaving Ando to wait for him in the Diner. The next day, Ando meets Peter, who has come to the diner, as he waits for Hiro to return. When Hiro returns a day later, he is disappointed because he failed to save Charlie. The two travel to Union Wells High School and arrive too late to save the cheerleader, but instead meet Isaac.

Two weeks later, Ando and Hiro steal a sword from the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. The next day, when the two go to retrieve their rental car, they are kidnapped by a strange man who offers them plane tickets back to Japan, which Ando is impressed by, but Hiro refuses. They are taken to meet Hiro's father. Afterwards, they return to Las Vegas where they attempt to assist a showgirl named Hope. While Hiro doesn't want to go through with it, Ando disagrees and attempts to help her himself. Ando leaves with Hope, driving her to Primm, NV. Hope's ex-boyfriend shows up and fires a gun at Ando, but Hiro saves him with his power.

Back in Las Vegas, Ando, who went against Hiro's wishes to go back to Japan, saves Hiro, allowing him to steal the sword he has been after. As Corinthian guards arrive to stop them, Hiro teleports the two into the future. While looking at pictures the two are confronted by Hiro from the future. Hiro learns that in this future, Ando was killed in the explosion.

They return to the present day in Isaac's apartment where they find its owner dead. The two hide from the man in the room, but when the man hears Ando gulp, Hiro teleports them out of the apartment. They follow the man to his mother's apartment, contemplating killing him. They try, but fail, breaking the sword. After they get it fixed, Hiro trains with his father, while Ando leaves to kill Sylar himself. However, Sylar catches Ando by surprise and starts to cut his neck. Hiro comes to his rescue, taking Ando back to Japan, leaving him there, telling his friend that he must finish the journey on his own.

After seemingly being downgraded to his old job, Ando discovers a message from Hiro on the bottom of the sword. He opens the sword and reads the scrolls that Hiro sent him about his adventures with Takezo Kensei. Ando asks for help reading some of the damaged scrolls. On one scroll, the story abruptly stops, much to the dismay of Ando. Later, Hiro appears in Ando's office where Ando must spoil the joyful reunion with the news of Kaito's death. Days later, Ando speaks with Hiro at Kaito Nakamura's funeral.

Ando watches Hiro Nakamura open Hiro's father's safe, finding half of a formula but Daphne Millbrook steals it in a flash. Hiro time travels to see what will happen with the formula stolen. After he returns, Ando notices Hiro does not trust him and he explains him that hekillshim in the future. Hiro tries to use a medal of Daphne's to bargain for the formula. The next thing Ando knows, Daphne is gone and his neck has been slightly cut. Ando thinks Hiro cut him when time was frozen, but Hiro tries to tell him it was Daphne. Hiro tells Ando that he secretly planted a tracking device on Daphne's medal. Ando is disappointed that Hiro didn't tell him before. They track Daphne to Berlin, where she is going to steal the other half of the formula from the Haitian. Ando knocks the Haitian unconscious and they argue if Hiro can trust Ando. Meanwhile, Daphne steals the other half. The Haitian wakes up brings Hiro and Ando to Primatech Research where they are locked up. Ando agrees to help Hiro escape, but Ando isn't going with him. The Haitian then catches them escaping and takes them to Angela Petrelli. Angela tells them that the formula gives people abilities, and tells them that they need to dig up Adam Monroe.

Adam takes them to a bar, where Adam gets away and Daphne and Knox offer Hiro a job. Knox tells him that to prove hes got what it takes he needs to kill Ando since he doesn't have an ability and is useless. Hiro pretends to impale Ando with a fake sword, making Daphne and Knox believe that Ando is dead, using gag blood obtained by Hiro using his ability. Hiro brings Ando on his first mission: travel to Africa to recruit Usutu. After Usutu pulls a few pranks on them, Hiro decides to visit the moments Usutu had painted to gain information on the Pinehearst villains. Usutu gives Hiro a paste to eat. It makes Hiro unconscious and Ando blames it on Usutu. When Hiro wakes up from his spirit walk, Usutu is found dead. Arthur Petrelli sees Hiro and erases his memory, leaving him thinking he is a 10 year old.

Ando gets attacked and he yells at Hiro to teleport them away. Hiro teleports them to a bowling alley where Ando helps Hiro rediscover his ability. Hiro then teleports them to a comic book store so they may look for answers in 9th Wonders!. They first go to Matt Parkman looking for help, and the three travel to Lawrence, Kansas to find Daphne. They then go to the Sam's Comics store in Lawrence, and Hiro travels to 1990, leaving Ando behind. Daphne transports Ando and Matt to New York, where they find and read Isaac's sketchbook. Upon learning that Hiro had his ability stolen in the past, Ando suggests that he inject himself with the formula, hoping he will get space-time manipulation, to go get Hiro back from the past. Daphne goes to Pinehearst and steals a sample of the formula. Ando injects himself with the formula and faints. When he wakes up, they realize that Ando can supercharge abilities, and supercharging Daphne's ability allows time travel. Daphne and Ando travel through time and bring Hiro back to the present. Afterwards, Daphne and Hiro retrieve and destroy the physical copy of the formula.

Hiro shows Ando their new secret base, gives Ando a motorcycle and tracking device, and wants him to fight crime. Ando takes off on the motorcycle disregarding Hiro's wishes. Hiro calls Ando and Ando hears Hiro being captured. Ando tracks Hiro to Russleville, Arkansas. Daphne Millbrooktakes him there to find Matt Parkman and Hiro. Shortly thereafter, they are found by Danko's team, who open fire, shooting Daphne while the rest manage to escape. Peter Petrelli, Matt, Ando, Hiro, and Mohinder Suresh meet up and decide to go underground to avoid getting caught by Danko. However, Ando and Hiro go to New Delhi, India, as predicted by Matt's drawings, where Ando convinces an uncertain bride to cancel her wedding. Hiro is upset that Ando for stopping the wedding that Hiro was shown stopping in Matt's drawing. The groom gets angry and kidnaps Ando and threatens to kill him if the wedding does not proceed as planned. Hiro stops the wedding and rejoices at having fulfilled the prophesy. Hiro and Ando then receive a message from Rebel telling them to "save Matt Parkman".

They go to the address in Los Angeles Rebel sent them, only to find a baby. The frantic babysitter thinks they are the replacement sitters she called, and tells them the baby is "Matt Parkman". After they realize the baby is Matt Parkman, Jr. and he has an ability, the baby's mom comes home. Danko's agents arive and Ando uses his ability as a concentrated blast of energy to knock out one of the agents. Hiro then stops time thanks to baby Matt reactivating part of his ability and moves Ando 12 miles in a wheelbarrow to a bus station as he is unable to teleport. They decide to go after Matt Parkman, Sr. in a Nissan Cube. When the baby cries and the Cube stops, they try to hitchhike. But they still have problems because the baby makes that car stop too. They realize that the baby makes things go when he is happy and stop when he is upset. Ando makes a face to make the baby laugh so the car can go, and quickly realizes that he must keep his face that way for the entire trip. In Washington D.C., Ando waits in a park with Baby Matt while Hiro saves Matt, Sr. Ando watches as father and son meet for the first time.

Ando and Hiro then decide to take Building 26 down, but, unaware of the plan, Ando is unwillingly used as bait by Hiro, Hiro then dons an agents suit in order to ride together in a van to Building 26. On the way, the agents get suspicious of Hiro, and Ando is able to use his ability to knock out everyone in the van at once. Once there, Hiro and Ando agree to work equally. When Hiro tries to stop time, he gets a nosebleed. They enter the building and find the prisoners strapped to a bed. They free them and strap the agents in the beds. Mohinder tells Hiro that his body is rejecting his power and if he uses it one more time, it could kill him. Hiro and Ando then attend Sylar's funeral at Coyote Sands and head home.

Before heading home, Hiro and Ando have a small vacation in Costa Verde. During this vacation, they help Rachel Mills and Claire Bennet deal with a dangerous new faction. Ando uses his ability to supercharge Rachel's teleportation, allowing her to teleport the three of them to far off places. Ando once again does this after their fight with Wildman, supercharging Rachel enough so that they can get Magdalena Muller home. After returning Mags safely, Hiro and Ando return to Japan.

Ando obtained the ability to supercharge others' abilities, which manifests in the form of red energy resembling electricity. He used it to greatly amplify Matt's telepathy, allowing him to hear the thoughts of all New Yorkers, and Daphne's super speed, allowing her to run faster than light and travel backward in time (Dual). He is also able to use this to supercharge Hiro's space-time manipulation, allowing him to teleport dozens of people an unknown distance all at once. (Brave New World)

In the episode Cold Snap, it is shown that Ando can charge the red energy in the palm of his hand and expel it as a concussive blast outwards. The energy is shown to be strong enough to knock a man, fully geared, backwards several feet. It cannot be discharged quickly, however, as it seems Ando requires at least a small amount of time to build up power. However, as of I Am Sylar, Ando's use of this has increased: he is able to blast all of Danko's team in a van with one shot, knocking them out but not taking out Hiro at the same time.

Ando is later able to shock a keypad, causing it to act like the proper code had been put in and not short out and later blasts open a door with his ability to shoot energy blasts from his hands. Later, Ando, at Mohinder's suggestion, uses his power like electro-shock therapy in an attempt to restore Hiro's scrambled brains back to normal and it works, reversing the effects of what was done to Hiro. (Close to You)

Ando is a common family name in Japan. Traditionally, Japanese names are written with the family name first and the given name second. If Ando's name were written in this traditional manner, the character's first name would be Masahashi. However, since other characters refer to him as Ando, his given name is probably Ando.